Kenneth R. Jackson

Kenneth R. Jackson is a Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he has been active since 1981. He retired in 2020 but continues research in numerical computation, computational finance, and scientific computing. Born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, Jackson earned all his degrees from the University of Toronto: BSc (1973), MSc (1974), and PhD (1978). He held roles as Gibbs Instructor and Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University before returning to Toronto. Recognized as an NSERC University Research Fellow, he also served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies (2002–2005) and President of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (2001–2003).

His research focuses on numerical methods for ODEs, parallel computation, validated solutions, and applications in finance, medical imaging, and climate modeling. He has advised over 30 graduate students, many of whom contributed to groundbreaking work in computational finance and scientific computing. Jackson organized the 2001–02 Thematic Year on Numerical Challenges in Science at the Fields Institute and currently advises YetiWare. He teaches advanced courses in numerical methods, optimization, and computational finance, and has published extensively on topics ranging from high-dimensional ODE systems to GPU-accelerated financial modeling.